Sanders, Anderson Cooper clash over Flint water crisis

Bernie Sanders butted heads with Anderson Cooper Sunday after the CNN anchor said that the Flint Water crisis “was created by the government.”

"Your policies are about expanding government, why should the people of Flint trust that more government is the answer?” Cooper asked.

“I suppose they can trust the corporations who have destroyed Flint … We could trust them, I’m sure,” Sanders said sarcastically as the crowd cheered. “Or maybe, Anderson, maybe we should let Wall Street come in and run the city of Flint because we know their honesty and integrity has done so much for the American people.”

“At the end of the day I trust the people to create a government that works for them rather than Wall Street or corporate America,” Sanders said.

Sanders also said Flint's water woes stem from misplaced priorities.

"How did we have so much money available to go to war in Iraq and spent trillions of dollars but somehow not have enough money not just for Flint," Sanders said. "There are communities all over this country. It's not just infrastructure. It's education. Detroit's public school system is collapsing."

Sanders also called for the refund of Flint residents’ water bills and stated they should not need to pay for “poisoned water."

“Bernie Sanders is misleading the public when he tosses that line around because Gov. Rick Snyder agrees with him and has already provided $30 million in state funding to pay the water bills for the people of Flint,” said Snyder’s communications director, Ari Adler, in an email to POLITICO. “The credit is applied for any water they paid for all the way back to April 2014 and will be applied going forward to cover water bills until the water is safe to drink again.”

Adler went on to assail the Democratic candidates for “misinformation being issued almost hourly.” Both Sanders and Clinton have called on Snyder to resign over the crisis.